Ch26 – It’d be impolite to refuse, I can only humbly accept

Sponsored Content

As it had directly cut into the aorta, a casino official went straight to him and lifted him off the ground without another word.

No one knew if they would take him to a medical bay for free treatment, or if they would wait for this B-rank to use five hundred survival points to keep his life, for the B-rank himself had already passed out from the blood loss, thereby losing the chance to decide for himself. 

Either way, this move shocked everyone at the central gambling pool.

[Omg, how did he do that! Way cool!]

 

 

[What the, did this newcomer get some sort of special prop, err, a poker card?]

[Replying to upstairs: the system never designed lethal props like this.
Most of them are more functional than offensive, and even the famous S-rank prop Scarlet Dagger only affects supernatural beings.
Such a wicked plaything definitely can’t be a prop.] 

[Nooo then how would you explain this card being able to slice someone’s neck open.
Can your playing cards do that?]

 

[Um… Actually, I think it’s just an ordinary deck of playing cards.
If you look at the back, the design is exactly the same as those on the Las Vegas tables.]

The bullet chat fell silent.

Any other weapon would have been called a lethal weapon.

 

But this wasn’t any kind of weapon, nor could it be classified as weaponry.
It was a toy, at best.

It was just an ordinary playing card.

Who would think of playing cards as weapons?

But just now, in full view of the public, this thin playing card sliced through space, landing a direct cut to the aorta on the neck of the B-rank trainee.
The blood that flowed shocked everyone. 

However, the young man sat calmly at the gambling table, lazy indolence shimmering in his pale pink eyes.

Everyone’s gazes inadvertently fell onto his slender, well-defined hands, as beautiful as white jade porcelain.

Could anyone have expected that cards thrown by these hands would bring someone millimetres from death?

This realisation brought a chill down their backs, and the looks they gave him were laced with fear. 

As a sensational newcomer who received shockingly disparate ratings, Zong Jiu was inexplicably subject to great enmity and malice.
Countless people wanted to see him fall.

But the infinite loop always revered the strong.
Only the strong deserved respect.

A short distance away at the middlemost gambling table, the Exorcist clucked his tongue.
“This newcomer should have partially strengthened his hands.
with that strength, he not only should have strengthened it, he should also have practised martial arts.”

Everything was laid bare before their eyes.
The playing cards had little to do with the scene Zong Jiu created.
It was, on the contrary, the high degree of wrist strength. 

Theoretically, at a precise angle and with sufficient strength, even paper-thin cards would turn into lethal weapons that could take lives in an instant.
There were plenty of trainees who had chosen to strengthen their hands in the infinite loop; most notably, an A-rank, one of the core members of Team Cursed, had a special ability to detect resentment and deal attacks by pricking voodoo dolls.

“He should have strengthened it significantly, just a little short of top-notch enhancement.
But speaking of which, how did he get that many survival points? Did he take a loan from the system?”

 

“Hah? You must be joking, since when has the system opened such a business? Would I still be sticking my neck out here, if so? He probably did a time-limited enhancement.
I’m more curious where he got those chips from; we all know that only S-rank props can add twenty thousand chips thereabout out of thin air.”

After this whole analysis, No.
6 tossed the cards in his hand to the table.
“Bye.
It’s dull playing with you guys, I can’t keep track of the cards anymore.” 

There wasn’t any suspense at the middlemost table.
Once Zhuge An played seriously, not one of the other seven S-ranks present could outplay him.
And it was just their luck that he looked to be in the mood today.

They had tested the waters with a few rounds, and aside from the two times that Zhuge An folded early from a bad opening hand, they hadn’t been able to pinch a single chip off this miserly cock.

Sponsored Content

Not all of the ten S-ranks had come.

The revered No.
1 always came and went like a shadow, vanishing after showing his face at the second evaluation.
Conversely, No.
2 Van Zhuo and No.
3 Zhuge An were both present, as well as two other S-ranks.
They were all clear that coming here to gamble was as good as serving themselves on a platter to Zhuge An, and had quickly escaped to A-rank tables to try their luck. 

Nevertheless, those that were assigned S-rank by the system couldn’t be underestimated.

People like them could probably fill a backpack full of special props.
In addition to special props, they were also powerful leaders and had a lot of rare items that they could exchange at the reception counter.
Several hundred thousands of chips were nothing to them; they wouldn’t even blink an eye at losing fifty thousand on the spot.

Compared to those bottom-rung trainees that had to sell their lives for five thousand chips, it was the old adage of infertile lands cracking in drought and prosperous lands flooding with rain; the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

As the surrounding people gradually left, Zhuge An fanned out the cards in his hand, then took his card and got up. 

“Ho? Old Ghost, he’s finally gone.”

The Exorcist nudged Black-Robed Azan next to him.
“How about we start a game?”

Black-Robed Azan wrinkled his brows, watching Zhuge An as he left.

“Sure.
Let’s solo at an empty A-rank table, it’s boring having people around.” 

—

On the other side, Zong Jiu calmly took his seat.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection.
If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Coafg ogffhlcu atf mtlqr lc fnfgsbcf’r mjgvr, atf vfjifg yfujc atf merabwjgs mjgv rteooif.

Ktlr ajyif kjr qijslcu Kfzjr Lbiv’fw. 

Kfzjr Lbiv’fw kjr erejiis j akb ab afc qijsfg ujwf.

Coafg atf qijsfgr kfgf fjmt vfjia akb mjgvr ojmf vbkc, atf olgra gbecv bo yfaalcu kbeiv yfulc.

 

Following which, another five community cards would be sequentially revealed throughout two more rounds of betting.
Then, the players would form the best five-card combination using the two cards from their hand and any three of the community cards to decide who has the best hand.

Although this casino was named Las Vegas, many rules were different from the poker that Zong Jiu had played in his former reality.
For example, the dealer was responsible for monitoring for cheating, and the way bets were placed was changed due to the chip limit at gambling tables. 

But on the whole, the gameplay hadn’t changed and it was still possible to cheat with skill, so it was fine.

The highest bet at the table was placed by Anthony, who had straightaway increased the initial 10,000 chips table to 20,000 chips.
10,000 as the baseline, and another 10,000 on top of it.

Zong Jiu could immediately tell from his appearance that this person was probably of the same race as Vincent from the first instance in the novel.

In the Mental Asylum, Vincent only existed as hearsay; he only heard his name, but never once saw his person. 

Zong Jiu supposed that there was no news of Vincent as he was too confident at the beginning and went straight to explore basement 2 alone, ultimately being pulled into the alternate dimensional space and becoming a sacrificial lamb to the invincible supernatural entity.

Vincent was one of No.
2 Van Zhuo’s right hands in the novel, and also a half-vampire of the Night Clan.

The more powerful the vampire NPC in the horror instance that gave the contender the bite, the purer the bloodline would be when transformed, and the more distinct the vampire characteristics.
Purportedly, Van Zhuo was transformed by the Blood Prince himself, turning his pupils dark red, like blood.

As for Anthony, seated opposite him, he was clearly a standard half-vampire with red intermingling in his green eyes and skin so pale that it resembled the lifeless wax of a patient. 

If Zong Jiu wasn’t mistaken, it was also Anthony who had signalled for that B-rank to provoke him earlier.

It was strange.
He hadn’t had any conflicts of interest with this group of half-vampires, so this sudden probe made him suspicious.

While Zong Jiu contemplated this, the dealer finally dealt the cards clockwise to him.

The white-haired young man’s lips curled.
With his fingers half-rested against the table, he gently lifted a corner of the card to view his hand. 

This action was very mundane.
It was the first reaction of all the players at the table to cover their cards with their hand and lift only a corner towards themselves to view the cards, whilst preventing the others crowded around the table from seeing them.

In the vast majority of cases, Texas Hold’em wasn’t completely dependent on luck.

Sponsored Content

In fact, with a good understanding of the rules and a lot of practice, it was possible to get plenty of information about their opponents through the fluctuations in their expressions during the betting rounds, thus calculating probabilities to deduce the opponent’s hand and choosing whether to call or to fold.
It was for this reason that players in international Texas Hold’em tournaments generally had dead fish-eyed poker faces before they opened their cards, never allowing a hint of their emotions to show.

But all of these were useless to Zong Jiu. 

As the dealer continued to issue the cards to the people after him, he changed his opening hand to a pair.

The odds of opening with a pocket pair was extremely slim.
Unless there was a player with crazy good luck, Zong Jiu could easily win without needing to change his hand again.

 

Incidentally, the dealer seemed to have swept a glance his way as he changed his hand.

A veteran dealer naturally wouldn’t be at the same calibre as the one at the low-ranking table earlier, steeply increasing the probability of getting caught. 

Since the dealer looked over, Zong Jiu didn’t shy away either, conversely stretching his limbs and letting the dealer study him.

The bullet chat broke out into discussion watching this.

[Speaking of which, there shouldn’t be anyone cheating at this type of table, right?]

[Idk, but if they’re caught by the dealer, they’d be deducted thrice of the chips that were frozen.
This cost isn’t something that ordinary people can afford.
I just saw someone caught cheating at the B-rank table, and 9,000 was directly deducted.
If anyone cheats here, it’d be 60,000.] 

[Please behave, it’s 60,000.
Surely no one will want to take on the challenge of cheating here.]

As Zong Jiu thought, the dealer at an A-rank gambling table didn’t have the eyepower to catch any traces of a virtuosic magician changing cards.

Even so, this dealer was still quite sharp.

It would probably be an even thornier problem to attempt cheating in front of the only dealer dressed in purple at the no-limit gambling table. 

Zong Jiu listlessly knocked the surface of the table, waiting for others to bet.

He enjoyed such challenges; the harder it was, the more enjoyable it was.

How senseless would it be if he could effortlessly turnover the whole casino.
Some stress would bring the game on.

At this point, the first round of betting concluded.
The dealer opened three community cards. 

Five of hearts; seven of diamonds; five of clubs.

“Raise.”

Anthony coldly threw out a stack of chips.

He probably had quite a good hand on him, or else he wouldn’t have raised the bet so readily. 

Zong Jiu glanced at the community cards, and moved his hand.
He pretended to pick up the cards in his hand, but in fact replaced his hand with the five of spades and five of hearts with a speed that was hard to catch with the naked eye.

Five of spades; five of hearts; five of diamonds; five of clubs.
A four of a kind; four cards of the same rank but of different suits.

 

Unless there was a flush at this table, Zong Jiu was sure to win.

Of course, the appearance of a flush was also subject to the situation.
If there weren’t three cards in the five-card suit that could make a flush, it was useless even if the two cards in the player’s hand could, for two cards could not form a flush.
In other words, the odds of a flush occurring was unlikely, and even if there was a chance, it was only a matter of Zong Jiu wiggling his fingers and switching out his hand once more. 

Now, he only had one goal in mind.

There was a rule in Texas Hold’em that any time a player felt that they had a bad hand, they had the option to fold.

If they folded, they could stop their loss, leaving behind only the ante (initial forced bet).
The ante of an A-rank table was 3,000.

In other words, if the other five at the table abandoned their cards on the offset, Zong Jiu could get back his 20,000 alongside another 15,000 chips, which wasn’t much of a win. 

So now that his win was guaranteed, all Zong Jiu had to do was to swindle these people and give them enough confidence to constantly raise the bet.

Sponsored Content

Then, he can happily harvest the leeks!

More and more trainees gathered around to watch.
Without anyone playing at the middlemost table concurrently, everyone turned their attention here.

“This C-rank newcomer is so arrogant.
I heard that he even injured a B-rank earlier…” 

“Doesn’t the casino prohibit intentional injury?”

“Yeah, the system ended up deducting 10,000 chips from him.
But no one knows where he got another 20,000 chips from; he still had enough to go a round after the chips were deducted.”

“20,000? Weird, could it be an S-rank special prop?”

“How could it be, he’s only a newcomer, where would he get an S-rank from? But there are quite a few rare items that are up for exchange with the system, maybe he got something good.
Who knows.” 

The voices of the spectators couldn’t pass through.
The table was silent.

All of them were trying to surreptitiously catch any hints from each other’s expressions.

At this moment, Zong Jiu suddenly beckoned to someone behind him.
The tuxedoed attendant immediately stepped forward, head bowed respectfully.

Everyone’s eyes focused on him. 

The white-haired young man whispered a word to the attendant, who showed surprise on his face.

“Of course.
We will certainly acquiesce to your request, sir.”

 

Then, they watched as the attendant trotted to the reception counter, panting as he ran back and handed a booklet to the young man.

“What’s that?” 

Someone at the table immediately shouted, “Is he openly cheating?”

[Huh? Out in the open like that?]

[Even if he’s cheating, he can’t just team up with an AI attendant lol.]

[It’s too stupid to do it in full view like everyone else is a fool.] 

Not only the people at the gambling table, the live broadcasts and the surrounding spectators all reacted the same way.

They unanimously stared at the small booklet with a dark green cover in Zong Jiu’s hand, deep suspicion in their eyes.

“Ah, are you talking about this?”

Zong Jiu acted as if he had just noticed everyone’s eyes on him.
He held the booklet in one hand, waving it in the air. 

“About this…”

The white-haired young man pursed his lips and gave an embarrassed smile, like Jekyll and Hyde to the heinous spirit that had sliced a man’s neck to near-death earlier while wearing a faint smile.

“This is my first time playing Texas Hold’em.
I don’t know the rules very well, so I’m doing some last minute cramming.”

As he spoke, he casually waved the book in his hand: An Introductory Guide to Texas Hold’em. 

Everyone, “???”

The question marks on their faces almost broke through the ceiling.

Act! Just keep acting!

Anthony’s face turned dark.
“Are you toying with us? If you don’t know how to play, then get lost and go play in the kiddy pool.” 

Zong Jiu, innocent-faced, “I accidentally misread the signage and thought you were playing Blackjack.
I’m an expert at Blackjack.”

Those at the gambling table each had their own mind.
No one believed him.

Sponsored Content

 

They weren’t stupid.
How could they believe the nonsense Zong Jiu said of misreading the signage?

It was 20,000 chips, after all! 20,000! Losing was like throwing away your life! 

Someone sneered, “The cards have already been dealt.
Anyway, your hand and the community cards are fixed; you can’t run.
Since we’re all here to play, why don’t we go big? All-in.”

All-in.
It meant the player had bet all of the chips on their cards.

“Sure.”

Zong Jiu readily answered, pushing the platinum gold card forward.
“I only have a thousand left; I better quickly finish this so I can open Blackjack next door.
Don’t waste my time here.” 

Was it possible that this guy had a good hand? Which let him have such confidence?

Whether or not the people at the gambling table really believed him, it had to be said that the white-haired young man’s behaviour was baffling that it greatly clouded their judgement.

Just then, the dealer turned over another card.

Nine of clubs. 

He recalled that he had a seven of spades and a nine of hearts, so he was sure he had the game in a bag.

Of the four community cards that had been opened, the two cards in his hand could form pairs with two of the community cards.

Unless someone had something more outstanding than this, his win was practically sealed.
Because, statistically speaking, there was probably less than 1% chance that anyone could have drawn a better hand than his.

Since the newcomer directly chose to go all-in, it gave Anthony the chance to go with the flow and show him up. 

“Ha, keep playing the fool.” Anthony scoffed before turning the conversation.

“Since even the newcomer has gone all-in, us veterans can’t lose face.”

He stared at the white-haired young man like a hawk, flinging down the card in his hand.

Another all-in! 

The spectators all gaped, disbelieving.

With Anthony taking the lead, the other A-rank veterans at the gambling table suddenly felt that they couldn’t lose face.
For a while, shouts of ‘all-in’ came rising and falling one after the other, and only two veterans frowned at their cards, ultimately folding and waving to the dealer to exit the game.

 

Only four people remained at the table; without exception, choosing to bet all-in.

Anthony said gravely, “Let’s all show our hands then.” 

Now that there was no turning back, he gradually revealed a victorious smile.

Four people; in addition to his 20,000, three others had bet 60,000 in the pot, as well as another 6,000 from the people who gave up their ante.

If he won, he could win the grand prize of nearly ninety thousand chips.
This was the kind of dream that people would wake up smiling from.

Hearing this, the dealer motioned for everyone to show their hand. 

The smile on Zong Jiu’s face widened as he slowly pushed his cards out.

The crowd collectively drew in a cold, sharp breath.

Four of a kind! Four of a kind, second only to the flush!

He looked at Anthony’s livid face, the corners of his lips curving. 

“Many thanks, it would be impolite for someone like me to refuse such graciousness from a senior; I can only humbly accept it.”